New China Partnership Now McDonald’s Largest Franchisee

A new China-based partnership has nudged aside Arcos Dorados (Spanish for Golden Arches) as the largest McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) franchisee. The partnership, consisting of CITIC Limited, CITIC Capital Partners, and The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG), successfully ran the gamut of China's regulatory requirements and the transaction was finalized on July 31. The new franchisee now oversees McDonald’s approximately 2,700 restaurants in China, including Hong Kong. By comparison, Arcos Dorados runs a chain of roughly 2,160 restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The partnership has ambitious plans for growth in the country:

Opening pace of new McDonald's restaurants in mainland China is expected to progressively ramp up to 500 per year in 2022 from approximately 250 per year in 2017 under the new partnership.

…Steve Easterbrook, McDonald's President and CEO, said, "China will soon become our largest market outside of the United States. We are excited to join forces with CITIC and Carlyle for better localized decision-making to meet changing customer demands in this dynamic market.” — RTT Staff Writer, RTT News